2011/12/17

F1 teams

List of Formula One constructors

Terminology: constructors vs. teams

In Formula One racing the terms "constructor" and "entrant" have specific and differing meanings. An entrant is the person or corporate entity that registers a car and driver for a race, and is then responsible for preparing and maintaining that car during the race weekend. As a result of this preparation role and active involvement in the running of the race, the term "team" has become commonly applied to an entrant organisation.

Constructors

Under Article 6.3 of the FIA Sporting Regulations, "the constructor of an engine or chassis is the person (including any corporate or unincorporated body) which owns the intellectual rights to such engine or chassis." The title of Formula One World Champion Constructor is awarded to the car "make" that has scored the most points during the course of the season, where a car's make takes into account both engine and chassis. Hence, if a car's chassis and engine constructor are the same entity (e.g. Ferrari, Toyota, BRM etc.) then the make is simply the name of that one constructor. However, where the chassis and engine are constructed by different entities the car's make comprises both (e.g. McLaren-Mercedes, Lotus-Climax etc.), with the name of the chassis constructor being placed before that of the engine constructor. As both engine and chassis are included in the make name, chassis run with different engines (e.g. Lotus-Ford, Lotus-BRM) are counted as two separate makes and points are scored separately. The World Constructors' Championship title is awarded to the constructor of the chassis of the make that scores the most points. For this reason, this list only considers chassis constructors. For more information on engines, see Formula One engines.

Teams

Since the early 1980s the FIA have required that Formula One entrants own the intellectual rights to the chassis that they enter, and so the terms "entrant" and "constructor", and hence also "team", have become synonymous. Before this time constructors were free to sell their chassis to as many other teams as they liked. Brabham and Lotus chassis were used extensively by other teams during the 1960s and 1970s and several quite competitive teams never built their own chassis. Rob Walker Racing Team was the most successful example, being responsible for the first victories in Formula One for both Cooper and Lotus. The concept of a "works" or "factory" team (i.e. the official team of the company producing the cars, as opposed to a customer team which buys them off the shelf) therefore applied to chassis in the same way as it does to engines in modern Formula One.

There have been some recent exceptions where a specialist company, not itself entered in the championship, has been commissioned to design and build a chassis for a team; Lola built cars for Larrousse and Scuderia Italia in the late 1980s and early 1990s, for example. Larousse had their points from the 1990 season erased after the FIA decided that they had falsely nominated themselves and not Lola as the chassis constructor. In 1978, the new Arrows team which had been established by former Shadow personnel was sued by Shadow on the grounds that the Arrows FA/1 car was a copy of Shadow's DN9 - a view upheld by the UK High Court, which placed a ban on Arrows racing the FA/1. There have been more recent cases with Ligier (1995), Sauber (2004), Scuderia Toro Rosso (2006 & 2007) and Super Aguri (2007 & 2008) where teams have been accused of using a chassis produced by another constructor (respectively Benetton, Ferrari, Red Bull Racing and Honda). No action was taken against any of these teams, the sporting authorities being satisfied in each case that the team owned the intellectual property to the chassis they raced.